Category: D2L Tips

This month you will see a change in the Dropbox tool.  You can now hide a Dropbox folder without changing its start and end dates!

Note that at the time of this posting, if you create a New Dropbox folder in your course, it will be hidden by default and you will have to turn the new setting off.  There are two ways of doing this:

First, you can change this setting when you are first setting up your Dropbox folder.  To do this:

• Click New Folder.
  
• Give your folder a Name, and set up your Properties as you like.  Then click the Restrictions tab.
  
  
• Deselect the Hidden from users checkbox, then click Save and Close.
  

If you did not deselect the Hidden from users checkbox, you can also “un-hide” the dropbox using the drop-down menu next to the title of the Dropbox folder.  To do this:

• Click the down arrow next to the title of your hidden Dropbox folder (you will see a closed eye icon next to the title of any hidden Dropboxes in your list).  Select Make Visible to Users.  The closed eye will disappear.
  

If you decide later that you want to hide a Dropbox:

• Click the down arrow next to the title of the Dropbox folder you wish to hide.  Select Hide from users.  You will now see the closed eye next to your Dropbox folder title.
  

Note that if you have linked to a hidden Dropbox in the Content area, it will also be hidden from students there as well.  When you select Make Visible to Users, the Dropbox will then be Published (made visible) in the Content area.

We have some exciting changes for you this month!

Shuffle Questions in the Quiz

This new option in the Quizzes tool allows you to shuffle the order of questions in your Quiz, either ALL the questions, or specific groups/sections of questions.  This means that the order of questions will change each time the Quiz is opened.

So, first, to shuffle ALL questions in a Quiz:

• Go to the Quizzes tool in your course and create a New Quiz, or edit an existing one.
• After adding your questions to the Quiz, click on the Shuffle order of questions at the quiz level select box.  Click Save to enable the shuffling option and continue editing your Quiz.

  

Second, create a Section in your quiz containing questions you want to shuffle, so that other questions in the Quiz will NOT be shuffled.  You can also use this option if you want to include a Text item (like a Case Study description) followed by a set of questions, where the Text item remains at the top, but the questions are shuffled.

• Go to the Quizzes tool in your course and create a New Quiz, or edit an existing one.  Then click Add/Edit Questions.

  

• Click New and select Section.
• Give your section a Section Name, and then scroll down to Display Options, where you will select Shuffle order of questions in this section.  Click Save.
  
  
• Click on the title of the Section to open it, and then click Import.
  
  
• Find and add the questions you want to shuffle in the Quiz into the Section.  then click Save.
  
  
• Click Done Editing Questions to return to the Quiz editor.
• You will see that the questions in your Section have the Shuffled icon next to them.  You can then add more questions to your quiz which will NOT be shuffled.  Click Save and Close when you have finished editing your Quiz.

Copy and Paste from Word – no formatting pop-up anymore!

For the last several months, when copying content from WORD into the HTML editor, you may have seen this pop-up:

But now?  DE Support now has the option to turn off this pop-up, so it will no longer appear when you copy and paste content into the HTML editor wherever it appears in D2L!!

Warning to save HTML editor content if you accidentally forget to save before navigating to somewhere else.

If you are working in the HTML editor in D2L (in the News tool, Content, etc.), and you forget to save before navigating to another website, or shutting down your browser, you will now get a warning prompting you to continue editing (or Save) or discard your changes.

For example, when working in the D2L HTML editor while using Chrome, if you don’t save your HTML page and try to navigate away, you will see this message:

If you choose to Stay, you can continue editing your HTML page and save it.

Welcome to our Camosun D2L Upgrade Report.

From April

Accessibility Checker in the HTML Editor

For those of you looking for a quick way to see if your pages and posts created using the HTML editor in D2L are compliant with WCAG Accessibility standards, your wish has been answered.  The HTML editor in D2L now has a Check Accessibility option that you can click to check for:

• Use of paragraphs as headings
• Sequential headings
• Adjacent links
• Ordered list structure
• Unordered list structure
• Contrast ratio of text to background colors
• Image ALT text
• ALT text filename
• Table Caption
• Complex table summary
• Table caption and summary
• Table heading scope, markup, and headers

“The [accessibility] checker indicates if there are no issues, or offers suggestions to fix identified accessibility issues.”  But note that it only available for those pages you create in D2L using the HTML editor.

Quizzes – “Long Answer Question” renamed “Written Response”

So, don’t be surprised when getting ready to create your quiz questions!

From May

Discussions – Allow instructors to post to All Groups at once in a Group Topic

Back in January, I told you about the new Discussions feature allowing you to create a Topic containing a set of group-restricted threads.  Now, we have a bit of an improvement to this as you can now post to All Groups within the Topic, instead of having to post to each group thread individually.

And there you have it.  Stay tuned for June updates next month!

This tutorial is designed for faculty who have previous experience using D2L and will cover the steps involved when you wish to create forums and topics in the Discussion tool in D2L. The Discussion tool allows for asynchronous discussions of topics, and sharing of information, between students and groups of students. But first, you need to know the difference between Forums, Topics, and Threads/Replies.

• A Forum is a container for Topics.
• A Topic contains the discussion itself.
• A Thread contains an individual student’s post to the Topic, along with others’ replies to that post.

So, a Topic contains multiple Threads, and a Forum contains (often) multiple Topics. You could, for example, have a Forum called “Module 1 Discussions”, and within that Forum, have a series of Topics called “Week 1 Discussion”, “Week 2 Discussion”, “Module 1 Group Discussions”, etc.

For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

1. Go to the Discussions tool in your course.

To create a Forum

1. Click on the New button, and select New Forum. Note that you need to create a Forum before you can create a Topic, even if there is only going to be one Topic in that Forum.
2. Give your Forum a Title. You can also give your forum a Description if you like. This description will appear under the Forum’s title in the main Discussion area.
3. The Options you select for the Forum will apply to any Topics within it. These options include:
   • Allow anonymous posts (this means students can choose to post anonymously)
   • A moderator must approve individual posts before they display in the forum (this means that YOU need to approve posts before students can see them)
   • Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads in each topic (this means that a student has to post to a topic BEFORE they can see other student’s posts)
   • Display forum description in topics (this will repeat the forum description under the title of all the topics within it)
4. Visibility controls whether or not (and when) students can see the Forum.
5. Locking Options allow students to SEE the Forum, but control whether or not (and when) they can POST to it. Click Save and Close when you are done.

To create a Topic

1. Click on the New button and select New Topic.
2. From the Forum drop-down menu, select the Forum you want the Topic to be part of. Note that this is mandatory – every Topic must belong to a Forum.
3. Under Topic Type, choose:
   • Open topic (meaning that all students can see the topic and post to any and all threads posted to it).
   • Group of section topic (meaning that all students can see the topic, but they will only see threads created by other students in their group –that this means that you need to have Groups set up in D2L in order to use this Topic Type).
4. Give your Topic a title, and the rest of the options are similar to those of the Forum (as described above). Click Save and Close.

 To create a Thread to start the discussion

1. Click on the title of the Topic you wish to post to.
2. Click Start a New Thread.
3. Give your post a Subject and add the body of your post. You can add attachments if you like. You can also change the Topic you are posting to (in case you have gone into the wrong Topic). Click Post.

To Reply to a Thread

1. Click on the title of the Topic you wish to post to.
2. Click on the title of the Thread you wish to reply to.
3. Click Reply to Thread.
4. Add your reply to the HTML editor, and click Post.

Things to Remember

You cannot create a Topic without putting it into a Forum – every Topic must belong to a Forum!

You and your students CANNOT post to a Forum. You need to have a Topic in order to post threads and replies.

One Forum can contain multiple Topics. You don’t need to have a separate Forum for each discussion, only separate Topics or Threads.

If you have Locking Options set up for a Forum or Topic, and you copy your discussion Forums and Topics from one course to another, remember to revise these settings for the next course, otherwise the original settings will control whether students can post to that Forum or Topic. So, for example, if you locked your Week 1 Discussion Topic on October 31, 2016, that date will copy along with all the other Discussion settings!